


On The Surface

by TheFunk



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid Fusion, Angst, Blood, Deaf Character, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, Unrequited Love, based on the original fairy tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 04:12:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10756473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFunk/pseuds/TheFunk
Summary: Joshua has spent many years dreaming of reaching the surface world, but when he finally gets there, it’s nothing like he expected.OrThe Seventeen Little Mermaid AU that nobody asked for.





	On The Surface

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably the longest and most depressing story I’ve ever written. I originally wrote this for my creative writing class in college, but decided to post it here as well!

Joshua sighed as he stared out at the ocean. He hadn’t been near it in years, but he could remember it vividly. He remembered how it looked and how it felt. He remembered how it smelled and how freeing it was to swim with all the other creatures that lived with him under the water. He remembered how alive everything sounded. But, he also remembered how trapped he felt. How suffocating the ocean could be when he wasn’t allowed out of his room. He remembered how exciting it was every time he learned something new about the humans. He remembered leaving.

He had been five the first time he learned of the world above. He had swam to the surface of the ocean, breaking through the waves, and saw wonders he had never even imagined. He had seen birds flying above him and he had seen clouds, big, fluffy, and floating in nothingness. He was immediately entranced.

He was seven when he got his first upper world item. He didn’t know what it was called but it was small and metal, shaped like a cup. He didn’t really know what to do with it but it fit perfectly on the tip of his nose. He liked to place it there, laughing as his eyes crossed to see it.

When he was nine, something had floated to the bottom of the ocean, landing just by his secret hideaway. It was a brown sack, bound tightly together with some form of hard twine that he had never seen before. He had tried to carry it to his hideaway, but the first time he tried to lift it, he had nearly sunk into the ocean floor. He’d never experienced anything so heavy. He had decided to open it to see what was inside. When he finally got the hard twine off of the sack, he was dazzled by the items inside.  
They were glistening bright in the sun, bars of gold covered in many gold coins. He didn’t realize it then, but he had discovered nearly a small fortune in that sack that day. He had stored it carefully in his hideaway, knowing that someone would want to steal it, it was too pretty to be left alone.

At eleven he met an expert. Vernon knew everything about the upper world, he was a seagull, you see. He would fly all around the upper world, learning everything he could so he could come back and tell Joshua all about it. He had learned that the tiny metal cup was called a thimble, and that it most definitely did not belong anywhere near his nose. Vernon was weird though, so Joshua didn’t really believe the last part. He would place it on his nose no matter what Vernon said, thank you very much. He had probably just been messing with him anyways.

He was thirteen when he saw his first human. He had heard about them before of course, Vernon had tried to describe them to him, but he had never seen one in person. After his first visit to the surface of the sea, he had only gone out at night so he wouldn’t get caught, by humans or by his father. It seemed that humans had the same sleep schedule as them, so he had yet to see one after the sun had gone down.

He saw a group of them one night when he had gone up to the surface. They were sitting around what Vernon later told him was a fire. They were laughing and singing, and Joshua desperately wanted to either join in the fun, or swim away and hide forever, he wasn’t sure yet.  
He had thought they were weird looking at first. From the waist up, they looked just like him, except they had their torsos covered in some sort of cloth. The biggest difference, though, was from the waist down. Instead of a tail, they had what looked like arms, but different. Legs, they were called, which looked difficult to use. They needed to move at different times to work right, and Joshua thought that was an unnecessary use of energy. There was no need for movement to be so difficult. The biggest of the humans looked especially clumsy, as if he was new to legs, and didn’t quite know how they worked. It was funny in an endearing sort of way.

When he was fifteen, he saw the group again, but they had been leaving when he got there. It had made him sad to have shown up, only to see them dousing the fire with water, it going out with a sizzle. But he was pleasantly surprised to see one of them making their way towards him. The human walked to the edge of the pier and sat down, legs swinging gently above the water. It was the first time he had seen one of them up close. At first glance he had thought the human was a girl, but when he looked closer, they were definitely a boy. He had black hair that was a little longer than most boys, but it was still on the short side, and delicate features.

Joshua had hidden behind a large rock to watch him in secret. He looked a little sad and a little lonely, even though he had just been with his friends. He had sung a song that night, slow and sad. Joshua didn’t understand the words, they sounded like gibberish to him, but they were beautiful all the same. Hiding behind the rock and watching the boy sing while illuminated by the moonlight, Joshua had fallen in love.

He began to go up to the upper world every night, when before he had been containing himself to once a month, limiting the chances of him getting caught by anyone. He couldn’t help it. He needed to see that boy again. He wasn’t there often, but he was there enough that it left Joshua wanting more.  
As the years went by, the boy’s hair only got longer, making him look even prettier than the first time he had seen him. The other had been out more often as well, and it made Joshua crave meeting him. He knew that one way or another he would go to the surface world, and meet the love of his life. They would meet, fall in love, and everything would be grand and perfect. All he had to do was find out a way to be with him.

His answer came to him the next year. At sixteen, he met the sorceress who lived in one of the caves in the east. She was kind to him. She had a sweet smile and wide sparkling eyes that made him trust her instantly. Her voice was soothing, and her tail was a pretty pink. She offered him the chance of a lifetime, the chance he had been waiting for forever. She offered him a life above the surface.

“I will give you legs,” she said, circling around him, “but it comes at a price.”

“Anything, anything you want,” he had begged.

A smile grew on her face, sharp teeth glinting in the lights, “All I ask for, is your hearing.”

It made him pause. His hearing? His hearing was what had made him fall for the boy in the first place. What would he do if he couldn’t hear that beautiful voice again?  
No. He shook his head and slapped at his cheeks, so as to banish the negative thoughts. Sometimes in life, sacrifices needed to be made in order to receive good things. And the love of the boy from the surface? That was definitely a good thing.

He took a deep breath, steeling his nerves. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

She conjured a contract from the nothingness. “Now remember, if you cannot get the human to kiss you by your eighteenth birthday, you will turn to foam and return to the ocean.”

He had paused above the signature line at her words. Would he risk it? Should he? What if the boy didn’t fall for him, as he had fallen for him? He remembered the serene smile the boy would get every time he stared out at the sea. How he would sit for hours as he stared out at the waves. He remembered the beautiful, heartbreaking songs he would sing. How gorgeous and breathtaking his voice was. He was worth it. If he could just get those eyes to see him, everything would be worth it.  
He signed his name on the dotted line, warmth filling his body as he did so. Water swirled all around him, sparkling pink like the tail of the sorceress. He could hear the sorceress laughing, a high cackling sound, but before he could react, his ears popped, and he blacked out.

He had woken up on the beach, a bird pecking at his forehead. Seeing his new legs was probably the strangest thing he had ever experienced, but he couldn’t help but feel ecstatic. He had actually done it, he had gotten legs, and was finally above the sea.

He could see movement out of the corner of his eye, and when he turned to investigate, he noticed humans running his way. The face of his boy, his boy from the docks, was the first he saw. Looking down at him with such concern. He had helped him sit up, gently, as if afraid he would break.  
It wasn’t long before he encountered his first difficulty on his road to love. It took only a few minutes of the boy speaking to him that he noticed that something was wrong. No matter how hard he concentrated, he could not hear a single word the boy was saying. He shook his head, fearing that water was clogging his ears. But no, he was deaf. Utterly, completely, devastatingly deaf.

He had begun to breathe heavily, panic setting in. It didn’t matter that they spoke a different language from him, he couldn’t even hear what he was saying? How would he learn his name? He couldn’t even use context clues to get by. He was scared. Could he still get this boy to fall in love with him if he couldn’t hear what he was saying? He had been so confident, but he wasn’t so sure anymore.

They gave him a room in their large house, down a long hallway in the east wing. It had a large window that overlooked the ocean, and a little sewing table tucked into the corner. It was small, but it had everything he needed in it. Vernon was even able to visit him by using the window. They couldn’t speak to each other, but having him nearby was comforting in a way.

He still had hope that he could get the boy to fall in love with him though. He came and visited him every day, collecting him so they could walk around the house and its grounds together. They didn’t speak, but it didn’t feel like they needed to, a comfortable silence enveloping them as they walked. It was nice at first, he got to see the boy every day, and the boy got to see him, hopefully falling for him as they walked. But after a while, it started to go downhill.

Other boys began to join their walks. He assumed that they were the ones he had seen with his long-haired boy the first day he saw humans. It made sense that he had friends, he was pretty, and if how he laughed at his own jokes was any indication, he was funny, too. But Joshua noticed something odd about himself as each new boy joined their walk. He found each of them just as interesting as he had found his boy.

This scared him. Had he fallen in love with all of them? The short one with the sugar white skin and the grumpiest frown? The tall tanned one that bumped into walls as if it was his job? Or the other tall one whose smile shined bright like the sun? He didn’t think so. He hoped not. He didn’t know what he would do if that were the case.  
A year later he finally realized his true feelings. He wasn’t in love with any of those boys. Not the tiny one, not the clumsy one, and not the bright one. And if he was being truly honest with himself, he was never even in love with the long-haired one. Vernon had tried to warn him so long ago. He had told him that he was only curious, interested, that it wasn’t love. The boy was just the first human he had ever seen, of course he would think he was in love with him.

But he hadn’t listened. No, he had ignored Vernon, and listened to that sorceress instead. She had assured him that he would love him soon. That she had used her magic and was sure that he had nothing to fear, that everything would be okay.

Perhaps she had been wrong. Even if Joshua had been in love with the long-haired boy, he still would have had no chance. The long-haired one already had a true love. A tall, stocky boy with wide brown eyes, who made the other smile bigger than anyone he had ever seen. He carried hair ribbons in his pocket, just in case the long-haired boy needed one. Would protect him from the little one when his equally as little patience ran out.

He hadn’t a chance in the world, and now he was stuck here. Stuck in this giant house, overlooking the ocean that had once been his home. He was destined to live in this house in silence until he died, turning to foam on his eighteenth birthday.

He stopped going on his daily walks with the boys. There was no reason for him to go anymore. He didn’t love any of them, and he could hardly consider any of them his friends. Now walking with them felt stupid. Why would he hang around with these people he couldn’t even hear? At this point, walking through the long hallways in silence as the boys spoke all around him, only served to make him sad.

So, he spent the rest of his days holed up in the room they had given to him. He slept a lot, dreaming of his home. He learned to sew, finally understanding what the thimble was for. He sewed little designs into his pillow case, scenes of the ocean and his undersea home. They made him feel better, not by much, but a little.  
And he accepted his fate. On his eighteenth birthday, he would turn to foam, ceasing to exist. And that would be fine. He made a deal, and he knew the consequences. All he had left to do was wait for the end to come.

He shifted in his seat, trying to get more comfortable. It was finally time. He knew what would happen once the clock hit midnight. In just one hour, he would turn eighteen. In just one hour, everything would be over. He would never walk these halls again. He’d never see those boys again. He’d never see Vernon again. He’d never swim again. He’d, oh god, he’d never see his family again.

He felt warm tears begin to drip down his cheeks. How could he have been so stupid? How could he let this happen to himself? How would he fix this? Could he even fix this?  
He stood quickly, head whipping around his room. He ran to his sewing table, grabbing a needle and a spool of thread. He rushed to the window, throwing it open and jumping out.

He sprinted to the shore, tears flying from his face as he ran. He fell to the ground as he reached the water. He wiped hastily at his cheeks, taking a deep breath to try and steady himself. His shaking hands somehow managed to thread the needle, tying the little knot at the top. He took a deep breath, then pierced his leg with the needle.  
He screamed, tears flowing freely as he pierced the other leg, the shimmery green thread connecting the two limbs. Maybe, just maybe, he could save himself. Maybe if he proved how much he loved the sea, the magic would allow him to return. Maybe if he took away his legs, connected them, maybe they would turn back into a fin, and he could finally swim home. He swore he could hear himself scream, so maybe the magic was wearing off and he could go home.

He kept sewing, sharp gasps leaving his mouth with every pierce of the needle. He sewed stitch after stitch, blood beginning to run down his legs. But he had to keep going. He didn’t have much time until the clock hit midnight. He sewed and sewed and sewed, rows upon rows of shimmery green thread connecting his legs together. They were beginning to look like a fin once again, the green a close match to his original scales.  
He began to feel light headed, blood still pouring from his wounds. He shook his head. He couldn’t stop, he needed to focus. He had to finish, then he could go home. He could finally go home.

He screamed in agony as a wave crashed in, salt water spraying his legs. They stung so much, he could only scream from the pain. He didn’t notice the yelling that came from the house, but he could see movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look beside him, shocked to see the long-haired boy heading his way.  
He cried harder the closer the boy got. He didn’t need him to see this, the boy didn’t need to see him return home. He tried to tell him to leave, but the boy didn’t understand him.  
He looked down, his toes were bubbling up. He began to laugh. Of course, he had no chance. Why did he think he could cheat magic? His cries mixed with his laughter, and he was sure it was an odd sound to hear. Ugly and probably heartbreaking all at the same time.

The needle slipped through his fingers as they began to turn to foam as well. His body began to feel light, as if he could float away at any second. The long-haired boy rushed to him, skidding on his knees at his side. He tried to grab Joshua’s arm, but his hand passed straight through the foam. Joshua smiled, and took one last look at the boy he once thought he had loved. He shut his eyes, hearing the crash of the waves as they broke on the shore, and was part of the sea once again

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3


End file.
